Garden coaches are for those who want help doing it themselves

Garden coaches: For those who want to do it themselves, with a little assistance

Nancy Davis Kho, Special to The Chronicle

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4:00 am PDT, Tuesday, September 25, 2007

garden_coaches_barnes_135.JPG Trudi Barnes, home owner is coached by Jack McKinnon in the proper care of her garden in Menlo Park. Trudi is pruning a Japanese Maple under the guidance of Jack.
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Eric Luse / The Chronicle names (cq) from source
Trudi Barnes
Jack McKinnon MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SF CHRONICLE/NO SALES-MAGS OUT less

garden_coaches_barnes_135.JPG Trudi Barnes, home owner is coached by Jack McKinnon in the proper care of her garden in Menlo Park. Trudi is pruning a Japanese Maple under the guidance of Jack.
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Photo: Eric Luse

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garden_coaches_barnes_135.JPG Trudi Barnes, home owner is coached by Jack McKinnon in the proper care of her garden in Menlo Park. Trudi is pruning a Japanese Maple under the guidance of Jack.
Photographer:
Eric Luse / The Chronicle names (cq) from source
Trudi Barnes
Jack McKinnon MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SF CHRONICLE/NO SALES-MAGS OUT less

garden_coaches_barnes_135.JPG Trudi Barnes, home owner is coached by Jack McKinnon in the proper care of her garden in Menlo Park. Trudi is pruning a Japanese Maple under the guidance of Jack.
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Photo: Eric Luse

Garden coaches are for those who want help doing it themselves

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First there were personal fitness trainers to get our bodies in shape, then came personal coaches to get our lives on track. In what can only be called an inevitable progression, there's a demand for garden coaches emerging - a professional devoted solely to the development of gardeners, not gardens.

The concept has actually been around for a long time - as a free service by savvy landscape designers and yard-maintenance providers to boost demand for their services. By telling customers how to improve garden aesthetics through pruning, soil correction, proper fertilization and the right plants, landscapers build their customer's knowledge - and their own business pipeline.

It's only been in the past five to 10 years, however, that the profession of garden coach - a mentor who can teach clients to maximize the potential of the flora around their homes and, in the process, spark or revitalize a love of gardening - has surfaced.

McKinnon, 55, has been an avid gardener for more than 35 years. He spent 12 years working in the gardens at Sunset magazine. He said a business adviser from Silicon Valley was the one who suggested labeling his skill - helping people design and manage their own gardens - as "coaching." That was seven years ago.

For Madeline Bakarich, "garden coach" made it onto her business cards two years ago, after advising friends informally on their garden design for six years. "I had been taking night courses in horticulture at the College of San Mateo and Merritt College in Oakland. It was a case of following my bliss," the 57-year-old former nurse said.

The Bay Area is a particularly fertile landscape for coaching simply because of the diversity of microclimates, which can make choosing the right plants tricky. "There are so many climate zones in the Bay Area, from the coast side to the desert inland," McKinnon said. "California has some of the best landscape quality in the world," making successful gardening a year-round possibility.

Clients come from across the spectrum. McKinnon works with landscape professionals as well as with individual gardeners, whose skill levels range from beginner to experienced gardener. "My goal for all of them is the same: to help them get to the next level of skill, without guilt." Sometimes it's a family moving to a new home that wants to identify the plants in their yard and care for them accordingly. Other times, garden coaches are called in when homeowners need an objective eye.

Trudi Barnes called McKinnon when she wanted help pruning the Japanese maples at her home in Menlo Park. "They are the main focal points of my yard and I wanted them to have a certain look," Barnes said. "I thought if Jack did it and showed me why he was doing it, I could learn from his expertise."

Of her work with a garden coach, Barnes said: "For me, it was like having private art lessons, since I consider gardening a form of art in many ways."

Donald Rush of Palo Alto called Bakarich last year, when he and his wife, Jacqueline, were looking for expertise beyond what Rush terms the "mow, blow and go" weekly garden service. "I enjoy working in the yard. Madeline points out what needs to be trimmed or pruned, and how it should be done." With her guidance, Rush said, "I sure enjoy the yard a lot more now."

Green, a San Francisco coach who goes by one name, has consolidated her garden coaching now that she is responsible for the garden at On Lok 30th Street Senior Center in Chinatown. On Thursdays, she works alongside and coaches volunteers who work in the center's garden as they toil amid the vegetables, flowers and native plants.

"Some of the people who come in for coaching approach this from a Buddhist standpoint: They want to be more connected to the earth and want to grow their own food," Green said. As volunteers benefit from Green's informal coaching, On Lok's garden thrives under their care.

Generally speaking, garden coaching starts with a visit to the garden in question for an initial consultation. Both Bakarich and McKinnon encourage new customers to take copious notes and record the discussion, as the coach identifies plants and describes how they should be cared for. "The initial meeting lasts about 1.5 to 2 hours, and the client leaves with six months' of work to do," McKinnon said. That work might include field trips to prominent gardens around the area, like Filoli in Woodside and the San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum, to find plants and designs they like.

The cost for the initial garden consultation ranges from $150 to $250; follow-up visits are generally charged at an hourly rate of $50 to $125. Phone follow-up is another common tool for garden coaches. Bakarich keeps a tickler file of her customers' gardens so she can remember what problems need to be addressed, and she calls periodically to check on their progress.

Not surprisingly, some psychological training can be as valuable to a garden coach as the ability to identify plants. Bakarich is a former psychiatric nurse, while McKinnon has worked as a lay minister.

Said McKinnon: "Sometimes couples disagree about what they want in their gardens. By listening to what each said they like, I try to find commonalities" that will let them agree on the plants and design for the garden. If that doesn't happen, he draws on the nonviolent conflict resolution skills he picked up in his practice of aikido.

One technique that both coaches employ is termed "treasure mapping" by McKinnon. Clients flip through gardening and home magazines to find photos of plants and gardens they like. Then they paste them to construction board to create a vision of their ideal garden. Bakarich said this exercise is fundamental in helping clients better articulate the goals they have for their gardens.

Because the field is so new, there is no garden coach association or accreditation required for garden coaching. For those interested in gaining the knowledge to become a garden coach, there are a number of highly regarded horticulture programs offered in the Bay Area, including at Merritt College in Oakland, City College of San Francisco, College of San Mateo and Foothill College in Los Altos Hills. Classes are also offered by the San Francisco Botanical Garden and the California Native Plant Society.

Another good source of garden advice for homeowners is California's cadre of master gardeners, volunteers who are recruited and trained by the UC Cooperative Extension Office. Active in 32 California counties, Master Gardener programs offer workshops, classes and events promoting horticultural education.

Green said that the most important lesson is to make mistakes and learn from them. She also emphasizes that a couple of pots on a fire escape can be the foundation for a wonderful garden. Her mantra is: "You can do it, in whatever space you have."